text:
Today UN Women and the European Union reaffirmed their strong commitment to work jointly towards gender equality and the empowerment of women. Witnessed by Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General and José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women, the High Representative/ Vice President Catherine Ashton and Commissioner Andris Piebalgs signed a Memorandum of Understanding, to enhance EU – UN Women co-operation on policies and programmes to advance gender equality worldwide.
High Representative Catherine Ashton said: "Discrimination against women and girls remains the most pervasive and persistent form of inequality. Together with UN Women we will work to improve the role of women in political and economic decision-making. We will also fight impunity for perpetrators of sexual violence, ensure better protection of women and improve their access to justice. These are issues that need our full attention and this new partnership enhances our ability to work even harder to reach these goals."
EU Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs added: "As I am travelling around the world, I can see that women are the agents of change. There will be no human and economic development without a sound respect of women's rights and conditions. This is a fundamental part of the development policy that I wish to champion. I'm convinced that this partnership will take our collaboration with UN Women to a new level, ensuring more efficiency and better support to women all over the world."
UN Women Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director Michelle Bachelet said: "The full participation of women strengthens democracy, peace and sustainable development globally. By signing this strategic partnership, the European Union and UN Women reaffirms their strong commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment. This partnership builds on on-going collaboration in several areas of work. The EU is a very important partner to UN Women and the MoU will enhance our co-operation on policies and programmes which make a difference in the lives of millions of women and girls worldwide."
This strategic partnership focuses on areas of mutual concern in the context of EU internal and external policies on gender equality and in the context of the mandate and strategic plan of UN Women:
1) women's rights, gender justice, women's leadership and political participation;
2) women's access to economic empowerment and opportunities;
3) combatting sexual and gender based violence;
4) women, peace and security;
5) gender in humanitarian aid;
6) responsiveness of plans and budgets to gender equality.
The partnership also builds on previous and on-going collaboration between UN Women and the EU. For example, with support of the EU, UN Women supported a crisis centre providing assistance to victims of sexual violence in Mauritania, allowing access to psychological, care and legal advice services. In 2011, through a EU funded project, UN Women also provided support to women peace activists from countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus to ensure their participation in peace-building in the region. Technical advice was also provided and led to the adoption, in Georgia, of a National Action Plan to ensure women's participation in peace-building. Through global programmes on gender-responsive budgeting and aid effectiveness, gender-budget tracking led to the identification of gender gaps in budgets of sectoral ministries and plans, such as health, agriculture, infrastructure in various countries such as Cameroon and Peru and supported advocacy for corrective measures, including relevant legislation. The EU and UN Women are also working together towards Increasing Accountability in Financing for Gender Equality, through a Progamme, set up to help national governments; civil society and donors to improve resources and accountability on gender equality in 15 countries. A program also recently started on enhancing women's participation in peace-building and post-conflict planning in Liberia, Timor-Leste and Kosovo (more information – add link: http://www.unwomen.org/2012/02/un-women-and-undp-to-partner-with-eu-to-foster-womens-effective-participation-in-peacebuilding-and-post-conflict-recovery/)
The Brussels based United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe - UNRIC provides information on UN activities to the countries of the region. It also provides liaison with institutions of the European Union in the field of information. Its outreach activities extend to all segments of society and joint campaigns, projects and events are organized with partners including the EU, governments, the media, NGOs, schools and local authorities.
United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC Brussels)
Residence Palace, Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 155, Block C2,7th and 8th floor, Brussels 1040, Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 788 8484 / Fax: 32 2 788 8485


text:
Fiscal hawk's departure leaves void at City Hall
Sean Elsbernd was an indefatigable teller of inconvenient truths about the city's finances and inefficiencies in his eight years on the Board of Supervisors. No one in City Hall brought more substance, principle or candor to the table on fiscal issues. He was ever the grump who insisted on reality and restraint.
Yet as he departed City Hall last week, termed out at age 36, Elsbernd allowed a confession: He didn't enter office on a mission to be the city's fiscal hawk. He emerged in the role almost by accident.
His focus on runaway retirement costs began when he was asked by Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin to join the city's Retirement Board in 2005.
"No one else wanted it - and I was the lowest person on seniority," he said.
Soon after that came an opening on the Health Service Board, which Elsbernd filled and quickly became a one-man warning system to the long-term problem that was emerging from unfunded health care promises to retirees.
Only in San Francisco would Elsbernd be labeled a conservative. He's decidedly progressive on social issues - he supported same-sex marriage as a civil right in 2004, when many prominent Democrats were hedging - and his fiscal resolve isn't about starving government, but making it work.
His departure is going to leave a huge void on the 11-member Board of Supervisors - and his decision not to run for the state Assembly is a missed opportunity for a city that had been accustomed to sending its brightest lights to Sacramento. He is leaving the elective arena to become deputy state director for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
It's rather hard to imagine Elsbernd holding his tongue at the compromises of principle and general tomfoolery that seep into politics. As a supervisor, he was not one to summon news conferences or master sound bites. But he was always accessible - and biting in his critiques.
"He was already a crotchety old man when he was 25," laughed Peskin, who counts himself as an Elsbernd admirer even though they sometimes clashed. "But so what? You don't have to be charming to be effective."
Elsbernd's principles were consistently straightforward: If you create a program, you establish a way to pay for it. Water ratepayer dollars should not be diverted to programs not related to getting water to the tap. Muni should not be giving free rides to youths when its basic service is deficient. He had no patience for Happy Meals bans, Grammy Awards second-guessing and myriad other board distractions from the city's core responsibilities.
Gabriel Metcalf, executive director of the good-government group SPUR, recalled Elsbernd's role on forging Proposition G, the 2010 ballot initiative that raised Muni funding while overhauling work rules that had undermined the system's effectiveness for generations.
"He collected signatures on the bus with us," Metcalf said. "He was the only one who put himself out there like that."
Metcalf added, "He has been so important - just so sensible and solid when the board went so crazy" before its more recent moderate reincarnation.
Elsbernd was invigorated, but not intoxicated as so many others are, by his seat of power. In an interview last week, he said he is only too happy to walk away from the grind of elective politics and spend more time with his wife, Jennifer, who is expecting their second child this spring. He had no interest in the legislator-commuter life of spending three or four nights a week in Sacramento.
His family's gain is the Legislature's loss.
"It's certainly one of the best of the best appointments I made, that's for damn sure," former mayor and now Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week. "He's someone I admire personally and professionally. I wish only that he would have found a way to stick it out in politics. I hope he gets back in ... because we need more of him."
Elsbernd's many fans will just have to wait. I asked whether he could envision himself on a ballot again.
"In 21 years," he said instantly, with a grin but no trace of coyness.
Say this about Sean Elsbernd: Unlike many politicians, he knows his math.
Is there a fiscal truth teller in the house?
Here are the most likely candidates to fill the role of Sean Elsbernd, below, on the Board of Supervisors:
Sean Elsbernd
Scott Wiener
Why: Freshman supervisor shows readiness to take on issues that are complicated (environmental-law reform) and controversial (public nudity).
Why not: His focus has been on land use, not financial matters. Also, fiscal reformers can become public enemies in some S.F. circles. Just ask Jeff Adachi.
Mark Farrell
Why: Venture capitalist possesses the commitment and financial savvy to apply sound business principles to city government.
Why not: He has yet to demonstrate the political verve that would be required to build support for issues that would draw labor's ire.
Carmen Chu
Why: She has the smarts and sense of fiscal responsibility, though she has not shown much inclination to lead the charge on contentious issues.
Why not: Mayor Ed Lee appears likely to tap her to succeed Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, who was just elected to the state Assembly.
John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicle's editorial page editor. E-mail: email@example.com. On Twitter: @johndiazchron

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Never, ever give up!
Diana Nyad swam 110 miles from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, a journey that took her just under 53 hours last September. In today's talk, Nyad gives a vivid account of what it was like to be out in the water, making her fifth attempt at this swim — one she first tried in 1978 when she was 28 years old. So how did she make it through the jellyfish, the unpredictable currents and the darkness "like you've never seen?"
[ted_talkteaser id=1896]The answer, as Nyad reveals in today's talk: a deep belief in perseverance, and some really good songs. Nyad says that singing a playlist to herself over and over again — anchored by John Lennon's "Imagine" played more than 100 times — helped tremendously.
We asked Nyad to share the motivational playlist that propelled her through the swim and all the training it required. She obliged. As…
元の投稿を表示 さらに218語


text:
You may know the 6 Degrees of Separation theory: you and I are connected to every other person on earth through at most six other people.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is launching a week-long campaign in which users of the popular online trivia game Freerice can recruit their friends to help bring food to the world's most vulnerable populations. This is the inspiration behind "6 Degrees of Freerice", the theme of the first World Freerice Week running February 6 - 12, 2012.
Freerice is an online trivia game where each correct answer earns 10 grains of rice for the world's hungriest – it's an addictive online game with a real-world impact. Those grains of rice will go to a hungry child who is only six degrees away from you and me.
Freerice crossed a major milestone last month when it reached one million registered players. For World Freerice Week the idea is simple, when you sign up you commit to recruiting six people, then your friends will recruit another six, and so on... the online movement to fight hunger could exponentially explode! And many more people will discover Freerice.
The game reaches an estimated 1.3 million players per month and has raised almost 100 billion grains of rice, enough to feed five million people for a day in countries in need of food aid.
Originally launched in English in 2007, Freerice.com had within a month raised enough rice to feed over 50,000 people for a day. It was also named one of the best charity sites of 2011 by Netted, the online publication of the Webbys – an international award honouring excellence on the Internet.
Additional resources:
The Brussels based United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe - UNRIC provides information on UN activities to the countries of the region. It also provides liaison with institutions of the European Union in the field of information. Its outreach activities extend to all segments of society and joint campaigns, projects and events are organized with partners including the EU, governments, the media, NGOs, schools and local authorities.
United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC Brussels)
Residence Palace, Rue de la Loi/Wetstraat 155, Block C2,7th and 8th floor, Brussels 1040, Belgium
Tel.: +32 2 788 8484 / Fax: 32 2 788 8485


text:
- Font:
- +
- -
Calling it an "urgent time for our country," President Barack Obama asked Congress on Thursday night to "stop the political circus" and approve a nearly half-trillion-dollar plan to help the economy by cutting payroll taxes, raising taxes on the wealthy and rewarding companies that hire new workers.
Other political news of note
Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
House Speaker John Boehner became animated Tuesday over the proposed Keystone Pipeline, castigating the Obama administration for not having approved the project yet.
- Budget deficits shrinking but set to grow after 2015
- Senate readies another volley on unemployment aid
- Obama faces Syria standstill
- Fluke files to run in California
- Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
"We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless and a political crisis that has made things worse," Obama said in an address to a joint session of Congress.Video: Biden: Jobs plan will help US immediately (on this page)
To answer that crisis, Obama proposed what he called the American Jobs Act, which he said would cut payroll taxes in half for working Americans and most small businesses, and boost spending on public works, like roads, by $105 billion. The plan would make last year's cut in the individual Social Security tax rate, from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent, permanent.
Obama calculated that the "typical working family" would get a $1,500 tax cut and that small companies with 50 employees would save $80,000, which he said would "provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled."Story: Obama's jobs plan paid for? Seems not
Obama didn't say how much the plan would cost, but advisers told NBC News it would run about $450 billion. Obama said he hopes to pay for it by closing corporate tax "loopholes" and by raising taxes on wealthier Americans.
"We need a tax code where everyone gets a fair shake and everybody pays their fair share," he said. "And I believe the vast majority of wealthy Americans and CEOs are willing to do just that if it helps the economy grow and gets our fiscal house in order."
Earlier this summer, Republicans forced a partial government shutdown over their refusal to raise any taxes at all, but Obama told them they should "pass this jobs plan right away," because "the millions of Americans who are watching right now, they don't care about politics. They have real-life concerns."
Aides told NBC News that a key point of Obama's address was that the measure simply wraps in a variety of deficit-reduction and jobs proposals that have drawn support in the past from both parties.
Obama's plan
Details of President Barack Obama's economic proposals, which would take effect next year if passed by Congress:
Tax cuts
• The payroll tax would be cut in half on the first $5 million of businesses' payrolls. The measure would cover 98 percent of U.S. businesses.
• Payroll taxes for businesses firms that increase their payrolls by adding new workers or increasing average wages would be eliminated. (The benefit would be capped at the first $50 million in payroll increases.)
• Payroll taxes would be cut in half for 160 million workers.
• New tax credits of $5,600 to $9,600 to encourage the hiring of unemployed veterans.
• Renovation of 35,000 public schools with new science labs, Internet-ready classrooms and other upgrades.
• Increased spending on roads, rail, airports and waterways.
• A "Project Rebuild" program to people to work rehabilitating homes, businesses and communities.
• An extension of unemployment insurance for 5 million more Americans.
• A $4,000 tax credit for companies that hire long-term unemployed workers.
• A new government fund to expand job opportunities for low-income youth and adults.
Source: the White House
Obama made the same argument, telling lawmakers there was "nothing controversial about this piece of legislation."
"Everything in here is the kind of proposal that's been supported by both Democrats and Republicans," he said.
Full text of the president's addressVote: How would you rate President Obama's speech?
Obama challenges Congress
Obama promised to release a detailed plan Monday.
In its latest budgetary outlook, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the federal deficits fiscal year 2011, which ends Sept. 30, at $1.28 trillion, down about $10 billion from last year. A bipartisan congressional debt committee met for a first time Thursday , assigned with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions.
Before Obama's jobs speech, a look at what the CBO says
Administration officials had made it clear ahead of time that Obama would take a pugnacious approach to Republicans in Congress, latching on to what public opinion polls show is widespread dissatisfaction with Washington gridlock.
"Members of Congress, it is time for us to meet our responsibilities," he said, complaining that "already, we're seeing the same old press releases and tweets flying back and forth."
"But know this," he added: "The next election is 14 months away. And the people who sent us here — the people who hired us to work for them — they don't have the luxury of waiting 14 months."
And in case lawmakers missed the point, he called on Americans watching at home to remind them of it, loudly and long.
"Lift your voice and tell the people who are gathered here tonight that you want action now," Obama said. "Tell Washington that doing nothing is not an option. Remind us that if we act as one nation and one people, we have it within our power to meet this challenge."Video: Will GOP accept Obama's plan? (on this page)
The White House intends to take the fight directly to senior congressional Republicans, beginning with a speech Friday in the Richmond, Va., district of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and following up Tuesday in Ohio, the state represented by House Speaker John Boehner.
Officially, Republicans hold fire
Republicans offered no formal rebuttal to the address, but in a written statement, Boehner agreed that Obama's proposals "merit consideration."
Cantor told NBC News that "there's a lot in the speech that we can actually begin to work on together, areas like small business tax relief, suggestions that we ought to streamline the process of infrastructure spending, suggestions that we ought to reform the unemployment benefits program in this country."Video: How will Obama push for the passage of his jobs bill? (on this page)
But he said it was unlikely that Obama would get everything he wanted, saying, "What I did take exception to was the all-or-nothing approach that the president took."
Cantor told POLITICO that he planned to break up Obama's proposals and pass some of them immediately — specifically, its measures addressing trade, small business, unemployment insurance and regulatory reforms.
The party's presidential candidates weren't so accommodating:
- Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota called a news conference to accuse Obama of delivering "more policies that are killing the U.S. economy," adding: "Unfortunately, it seems every time the president speaks, he costs the American people jobs and future prosperity."
- At a town hall gathering in Henniker, N.H., former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia said he was eager to see the president's proposal, but his initial take was that "90 percent of his activities are linked to government in the speech," even though "you live in an economy where the overwhelming bulk of permanent job creation are in the private sector."
- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney chose to release a Web video replaying parts of Obama's speech with the tag: "Mr. President, you are 960 days late."
- Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement that Obama was "mistaken" if he believed that "we can spend our way to prosperity."
- Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman accused Obama in a statement of reading off a "list of regurgitated half-measures," saying Obama "fundamentally doesn't understand how to turn our economy around."
- And former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania said in a statement that Obama had "kicked off his campaign for reelection ... by using the Congress as his political toy," adding: "Many say the president is a failure, but I disagree — he'd have to improve a whole lot to even be considered a failure."
Chuck Todd, Shawna Thomas, Mike Viqueira, Kristen Welker, Luke Russert, Morghan Parmet and Lauren Selsky of NBC News contributed to this report.


text:
Patricia E. Clawson
Prayer has helped to define Betty Andrews, from her childhood with devout Dutch parents, to her years as a missionary in China, Pakistan, and Taiwan, to today, when, at the age of 93, she meets with another woman daily for prayer.
Betty and her late husband Egbert Andrews were Orthodox Presbyterian missionaries to Taiwan. Egbert, the son of missionaries to China, served forty-three years as an OP missionary to Manchuria, China, and Taiwan. Betty was an OP missionary for twenty-two years.
Betty's family set the example for prayer. Her mother prayed while doing laundry and making beds. Her family prayed three times daily and read the Bible too. Her parents had left the Netherlands and settled in a Dutch community near Orange City, Iowa. In Holland, Betty's mother was secretary to the prime minister's sister. Her father, from the "poor side" of the Heerema family, was a baker, who had learned to cook while serving in the army. They joined the Christian Reformed Church in Iowa.
Betty and her three brothers were raised in a loving home. She learned the value of hard work and the importance of the church and doctrine. On Sunday evenings, she listened to her parents discuss theology in Dutch, a language she didn't speak but did understand.
Betty followed her brothers to Calvin College and chose nursing because it was less of a financial strain on her parents. After her first year, they asked her to quit to help support them financially, because her father's health kept him from working. "Whatever they felt I had to do, I did," said Betty. "Those years were difficult." While fellowship with young people was sparse, she enjoyed singing solos in Sunday school and worship. She eventually graduated with a nursing education degree from the University of Chicago.
The road to becoming a missionary began when Betty first heard missionaries speak. She was impressed by their dedication, but never dreamed of becoming one herself. For three years during World War II, she taught at the nursing school she had attended in Grand Rapids, and then she was asked to go as a missionary nurse to China. "I had never been challenged in my life to be a missionary," said Betty.
She agreed and attended language school in Peking, but returned to Grand Rapids when missionaries were evacuated because of the Communist takeover. She worked in a hospital, but told them, "Mission work is in my blood. I have to go." When asked to teach nursing students in Pakistan, she went for three years. While there, she had tea in Kashmir with Indira Gandhi to escape the heat.
Before Betty left for Pakistan, her brother, Edward Heerema, told her about the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He had studied at Westminster Seminary, become a Christian Reformed minister, married R. B. Kuiper's daughter, and written Prophet in the Land about his father-in-law.
Betty met her future husband, Egbert Andrews, through Edward. Both had attended Westminster at the same time. Several years later, Edward spotted Egbert on the streets of Grand Rapids when Egbert was home on furlough from Taiwan. He invited Egbert to stay in his home, where Betty met him for the first time over Sunday dinner. They didn't try to get acquainted, however, because Betty was preparing to leave for Pakistan.
After finishing her term, Betty left Pakistan because one of the new doctors was theologically liberal. Worn out, she returned to Grand Rapids and became dean of women at the Reformed Bible Institute. One day Betty got a call from Egbert, inviting her to dinner. They saw each other several times that summer. "Then he asked if I wanted to come out and be his wife; he needed a wife," said Betty.
Egbert had served as a missionary in war-torn Manchuria, where he was put under house arrest by the Japanese after Pearl Harbor. After being forced out of the country in 1948, he served in Taiwan. Betty thought, "Well, I could do worse!"
At 40, Betty knew that marriage was a tremendous step and wanted to know if it was God's will for her. She knelt by her bed, put her hand on her Bible, asked the Lord to forgive her methodology, and asked him to give her a passage to tell her what to do. She opened her eyes to Ruth 1:16, "For whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Betty wrote, "Even though the situation was not the same, I knew that I was to follow this man wherever he went for the Lord." They got engaged on a subway train in Chicago in July 1956, but Betty felt she couldn't leave her teaching position after only one year. Egbert returned to Taiwan alone.
A few months later, Betty got a letter from Egbert. "He desperately needed me to head the household for him," said Betty. He wrote, "Can't you ask them to allow you to leave?"
Betty prayed and found her replacement. She boarded a freighter for Japan, where she and Egbert were married on February 7, 1957. Heber and Eugenia McIwaine, OP missionaries to Japan, were in attendance. The last thing her mother said to her when she left was, "You are a brave girl." Her father smiled and kissed her good-bye. He died three years later, while Betty was in Taiwan.
Marriage for two people in middle age was an adjustment. As a missionary son, Egbert had attended a strict school in China, where the boys and girls were segregated. "Egbert enjoyed school, but he didn't know much about girls, so we prayed about that and really learned to understand each other and love each other. It made a difference."
Missionary life was not easy. Egbert wanted Betty to learn Taiwanese, the language of the people, even though he preached in Mandarin, Taiwan's official language. "I had to go to church for years and not understand a word that I was listening to," said Betty. "I had to get my own spiritual food from my own Bible reading. We had that at breakfast and prayer in the evening also."
They depended on prayer. "We prayed together before going to bed. No matter how late, no matter what condition, we were going to pray together." When Egbert was out in the evening, she said, "I would often spend two hours in prayer."
Setting up the household was a struggle. The biggest adjustment was having a servant and trying to teach her how to do housework. Her helper was 16, didn't want to do housework, and couldn't communicate with Betty, so they used sign language. "It was very, very difficult that first year, and it had nothing to do with my husband," said Betty. "He did the best he could to help me, but he had his own work to do."
Without organized language schools or textbooks, Betty learned enough Taiwanese for ordinary conversations. She taught children's Sunday school, sang songs, memorized Scripture, prayed, and taught one woman to read. "I didn't always understand. But the Lord brought me to it, and I considered it a gift of prayer that did it."
Betty often spoke about prayer when home on furlough. "What the Lord will do through prayer is phenomenal. God does answer prayer. He gives what you ask for according to his will. It might be tough."
One Christian woman asked if Mr. Andrews would pray for her non-Christian husband, who was scared, shaking, and hiding under a blanket. Egbert was out, but Betty volunteered. "Demons are troubling him again," the woman said. "Only a Christian praying can deliver him." Betty's heart sank, but she prayed, "God, I've never done it before, but I believe in your power."
"I put my hand on his head, and prayed as fervently as I could, 'Through the power of Jesus Christ you will be freed.' And he wasjust like that!" The blanket came off and he said, "Thank you!" Betty urged him to confess his sins and repent, but he refused. After she left Taiwan, she returned in 1988 and learned that the man had been saved after he had a stroke. He crawled on his hands and knees to prayer meetings.
Prayer calmed Betty when Egbert had the first of several strokes. His poor health prompted the Andrewses to leave the mission field in 1979. Egbert died in 1982 at the age of 71. Betty moved to Florida, took a writing course, and wrote self-published books for her family. One about Egbert's childhood in China was called An American Boy on the Yangsi. Her own story was Memoirs of Elizabeth. She now lives at the Quarryville Presbyterian Retirement Community in Quarryville, Pennsylvania, where she still focuses on prayer.
"I know it is not a popular thing to be dogmatic about prayer," said Betty, "but it is the most wonderful resource you have in the world."
New Horizons, February 2011.


text:
Bad gay: Should Hitler be outed?
In the fall of 2001, the terrorist attacks led to the cancellation of a slew of book tours. But one book that broke through the blanket coverage and even snagged a Today show interview within a few weeks of September 11 was German historian Lothar Machtan's The Hidden Hitler. For a sensation-stalking media, even a monumental terrorist attack couldn't suppress the highly controversial premise of the book: that Adolf Hitler may have been a closet homosexual.
It also proved irresistible stuff for late-night comedy, particularly at a time when everyone needed a good snicker. Saturday Night Live soon featured Chris Kattan in a pink SS uniform, prancing around the Third Reich, humping someone's leg.
Cute, but many gay activists weren't laughing. In the next few weeks they'll be laughing even less. On April 20, Cinemax aired The Hidden Führer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality, an extensive documentary that draws upon Machtan's work and adds more grist for the mill, including claims that Hitler molested composer Richard Wagner's 18-year-old grandson.
The filmmakers, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (Party Monster and The Eyes of Tammy Faye), and author and journalist Gabriel Rotello, are gay themselves and certainly aren't averse to exploring controversial topics. (Full disclosure: I appear briefly in the film, and all three filmmakers are longtime colleagues of mine.)
To a lot of gay activists and scholars, this isn't just another case of a dubious Bad Gay being exhumed; this is the Bad Mother Lode.
Even before The Hidden Hitler was published in 2001, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation launched a blistering attack on Machtan, who is not gay but who, most critics agree, is not homophobic.
"[Machtan's] speculation fuels an ongoing debate that the person who still personifies evil and hate six decades later was one of us," said Cathy Renna, media director for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. She added that the book is "without any real proof." In the Washington Post, Geoffrey Giles, associate professor of history at the University of Florida, accused Machtan of gathering up "every piece of malicious tittle-tattle and idle gossip," even though Giles admitted, "we can never know" the real truth about Hitler's sexuality.
There's a rightful skepticism among gays when an evildoer, dead or alive, is outed in the popular press. That's because journalists are usually loath to report on public figures' undeclared sexual orientation, piously claiming to be respectful of privacy– except, all too often, when it's a Bad Gay.
When a 1993 biography claimed that the dictatorial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover not only was gay but had a penchant for secretly donning cocktail dresses and feather boas, there seemed to be a collective exclamation: "Aha! He was a drag queen!" As if that somehow explained it all. Similarly, on the Today show, Matt Lauer teased his interview with Machtan by saying that The Hidden Hitler "claims that Hitler was actually gay, and that his homosexuality was at the root of his evil." The book claims nothing of the kind.
The impulse among some straights to pathologize homosexuality creates a strong resistance among many gays and lesbians to even entertain a premise. I've been guilty of that myself, writing on the 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta. At about the same time that The Hidden Hitler was published, a rumor began circulating that law enforcement was studying the possibility that the hijacking ringleader and some of his terrorist comrades were homosexual– a rumor investigators have neither confirmed nor denied. Atta had been described in the media shortly after the attacks as a squishy mama's boy whose father felt he wasn't man enough to be a terrorist.
The gay rumors were recycled by the National Enquirer, which reported that the FBI believed that "Atta and several of his bloody henchmen led secret gay lives for years." I followed up with a piece for Newsweek.com, noting that the rumors looked like more stereotyping on the part of federal law enforcement, which has a history of equating homosexuality with criminal activity going back to Hoover's days, and concluding that it shouldn't matter if Atta and his fellow hijackers were gay. But I was taking the point too far– just as the defensive critics of The Hidden Hitler are taking their point too far.
Of course it would matter if Atta were a homosexual. It would shed a bright light on how homophobia– not homosexuality– may be a contributing factor in driving an individual to unfathomable destruction. If Atta and his homicidal companions were secretly homosexual, living within an Islamic fundamentalist society that often imprisons or beheads suspected sodomites, it might help explain why they gravitated toward organizations that adhered to the strictest and most extreme tenets of Islam, perhaps as a way to control their urges. And it also might explain why they'd so easily give up their lives rather than continue in their tortured existences.
In the case of Hitler, such knowledge would be profoundly revelatory as well. In Machtan's portrait, Hitler was perhaps so self-loathing and so traumatized by the fear of exposure that he'd do anything to prove he wasn't a homosexual, including, later, persecuting other gays and violently stopping anyone, straight or gay, who might expose him as he rose to power. Machtan even posits that the SA chief Ernst Röhm, who was openly homosexual, was killed in the infamous Night of the Long Knives on Hitler's orders because Hitler was afraid Röhm was going to out him.
It may sound far-fetched, but that formula– squashing other gays as you grab for the brass ring is a tried and true one among the closeted and power-hungry set. It's the same formula used by Roy Cohn, Senator Joseph McCarthy's sidekick, in his purges of gays in government as he ascended to the power elite.
The Cinemax documentary powerfully distills the evidence in a way that Machtan's book doesn't. The Hidden Führer doesn't prove that Hitler was gay, but it certainly presents a lot to chew on. One flaw, however, is that it doesn't explore why this is important to know. Midway through The Hidden Führer, I was convinced that there's something there, but I was left wondering what the point is and why so many gays don't want to know.
In the cases of other, more laudable public figures– from Leonardo da Vinci and Walt Whitman to Florence Nightingale and Susan B. Anthony– gay activists and gay historians haven't had a problem claiming them as lesbian or gay. The proof hasn't always been definitive for the straight world, even if it has been for many gay activists and gay academics.
Because Eleanor Roosevelt was close with several lesbian couples and wrote highly affectionate letters to a constant companion, Lorena Hickok, the first lady was, according to many gay history books and websites, a lesbian– though some might say the evidence of that isn't any stronger than that presented regarding Hitler.
That's why the critics' angry denunciations ring a bit hollow. And with books like Machtan's and films like The Hidden Führer making the case, dismissing it isn't going to make the question go away. Why not engage the debate and see where it leads?
Michelangelo Signorile is the author of "Queer in America" and "Outing Yourself." He writes a weekly column for New York Press, which is where this essay first appeared.


text:
SAN DIEGO, Aug. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Tuberculosis patients now have a less-intrusive treatment program that will improve the likelihood that they will take all their critical medications, thanks to an innovative, locally developed treatment-adherence monitoring system that uses mobile-health technology.
Creation of the new system, Video Directly Observed Therapy (VDOT), was led by Dr. Richard Garfein in collaboration with researchers at the University California, San Diego's School of Medicine; a team of developers from Qualcomm Institute/Calit2, a research and development unit at the university; and public health officials from San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Verizon provided funding via a grant and in-kind technology, including its HIPAA-enabled cloud services and smartphones, to support the expansion of this first-of-its-kind remote treatment-monitoring system.
VDOT allows TB patients to video record themselves taking their daily medications on smartphones and send the videos to health departments, which then can remotely monitor and document each dose of medication. Because poor compliance with TB treatment regimens leads to ongoing disease, acquisition of drug resistant forms of TB, and transmission of TB to community members, health departments in the U.S. spend millions of dollars driving to patients' homes every day to watch them take their pills. This often stigmatizes patients, limits their mobility and imposes a financial burden on health departments. VDOT provides the same level of adherence monitoring at a fraction of the cost, and with much greater acceptability to patients than in-person observation.
Last year, a National Institutes of Health-funded pilot of VDOT in San Diego and Tijuana found that nearly all (more than 93 percent) of prescribed doses were observed using videos made and sent by the patients, and 100 percent of the patients said they would recommend VDOT to other TB patients. Additionally, the program significantly reduced the transportation and staffing costs for the San Diego and Tijuana health departments. Patients appreciated the mobility that VDOT allowed and the convenience of taking medications on their own schedules.
"MHealth applications like VDOT can be game-changers when it comes to accelerating the pace of TB control and eradication," said Dr. Garfein. "VDOT significantly reduces the cost and personnel burden of monitoring patient-treatment adherence, allowing healthcare providers to concentrate their limited resources on the patients with the greatest adherence needs."
The San Diego County TB Control Program is already using VDOT for TB patients' treatment, and health departments in San Francisco and New York City will soon begin using the new system. Other local, state and federal public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and public health agencies abroad have shown interest in VDOT.
(NOTE: A demonstration of the VDOT system can be viewed via live video stream on Aug. 15 at 11 a.m. PT; to access, click http://calit2.net/webcasting/jwplayer/index.php.)
VDOT Addresses a Life-threatening Infectious Disease
Tuberculosis is the second-leading cause of infectious disease deaths worldwide and kills more than 1.4 million people every year. This disease is curable if patients strictly follow an appropriate antibiotic regimen, which typically requires taking a combination of pills daily for six months. However, inappropriate treatment regimens and poor medication adherence have led to the emergence of drug-resistant strains of the bacterium. As a result, TB, which had been curable for decades, is once again becoming incurable. In 2009, several countries recorded cases of TB that were resistant to all active anti-TB medications.
In San Diego County, it costs about $27,000 to treat one drug-susceptible case of TB and about $130,000 for a case of multidrug resistant TB.
Verizon Partnership Provides Secure Cloud Services, Smartphones
Verizon partnered with UC San Diego to support a national scaling of its VDOT treatment-adherence system. Verizon provided funding and technology for the university to scale up its prototype VDOT app, which was designed to serve single health departments. The upgraded version, VDOT 2.0, uses Verizon's HIPAA-enabled cloud solution and makes it possible for multiple health departments to use VDOT simultaneously to monitor TB treatment for thousands of patients. Each participating health department will be able to securely store patients' health information and medication records that are only accessible to the departments' own staff. In addition, the Verizon's HIPAA-enabled cloud gives health departments their first centralized platform to securely exchange information and communicate with their patients.
Verizon will also initially provide 300 smartphones that will be distributed to patients at the first three VDOT 2.0 launch sites. The in-kind smartphone donations to the public health departments will help seed the use of VDOT and assist them in demonstrating the efficacy of mHealth solutions like VDOT to improve adherence and lower cost.
Anthony Llompart, Verizon Foundation director of healthcare programs, said: "Our collaboration with Dr. Garfein demonstrates the power of public and private partnerships to scale innovation to improve health outcomes for those who need it most. The VDOT program leverages technology to enable improved access and quality of healthcare, making UC San Diego an ideal partner for Verizon's Innovative Healthcare Initiative."
Verizon's Innovative Healthcare Initiative supports technology-enabled patient care programs designed to improve quality and access to care for underserved communities.
Health departments that are interested in VDOT can contact Debra Kain for more information at 619-543-6163 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
About the University of California, San DiegoInnovation is central to who we are and what we do at the University of California, San Diego. Here, students learn that knowledge isn't just acquired in the classroom--life is their laboratory. UC San Diego is an academic powerhouse and economic engine, recognized as one of the top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report and ranked number one in the nation for public service by the Washington Monthly. Our location is unparalleled, our impact unmistakable. UC San Diego shapes minds, changes lives, launches industries and builds the future ... one student, one discovery and one achievement at a time. Visit www.ucsd.edu for more information.
About the Verizon FoundationThe Verizon Foundation is focused on accelerating social change by using the company's innovative technology to help solve pressing problems in education, healthcare and energy management. Since 2000, the Verizon Foundation has invested more than half a billion dollars to improve the communities where Verizon employees work and live. Verizon's employees are generous with their donations and their time, having logged more than 6.8 million hours of service to make a positive difference in their communities. For more information about Verizon's philanthropic work, visit www.verizonfoundation.org; or for regular updates, visit the Foundation on Facebook (www.facebook.com/verizonfoundation) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/verizongiving).
VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's online News Center at newscenter.verizon.com. The news releases are available through an RSS feed. To subscribe, visit newscenter.verizon.com/corporate/feeds.
SOURCE Verizon Foundation


text:
This product has been discontinued
Brembo - Honda HPK Supersport Rotors
Product Code: BREMBO-HPK-FRONT-BRAKE-ROTORS-HONDA
- Description
- Reviews
- Customer Photos
Brembo - High Performance Brake Rotor Kit
World Supersport winning rotors for the street. These fully homologated for the street rotors have performed at the highest level in World Supersport and dominated the class outperforming any other competitors rotor on many occasions. Available in 320mm
- Rotor kits are direct OEM replacement, Bolt-n-go
- Brake surface drilling pattern is optimized for maximum performance
- Cross drilled for weight savings and cooling efficiency
- High strength stainless steel material
- Full floating mount design
- Billet anticorodal carrier - gold anodized
- Suitable for racing applications, yet tame enough for the street
- Lighter, thicker, and stronger than OEM rotors
- 5.5mm thick narrowband design for less inertial mass
- Kit includes two rotors and handbook


text:
West Indian Roti and Doubles Galore at Singh's Roti Shop, Boston
If you rolled into Singh's Roti Shop expecting "West Indian dining" to comprise chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, and a mango lassi, well, you wouldn't be the first.
"Some people don't know about the food, and think we're from India," owner Ricky Singh told me. "But it's Caribbean flavors, and we start educating them."
I've going to Singh's for the past six years, but each trip is still an education, courtesy of the cheerful, gabby Singh. There aren't a ton of West Indies-style restaurants in these parts, let alone establishments focusing on Trinidadian roti. Adapted from Indian flatbreads, roti can refer to the "skin"—the bread itself—or an entire meal, in which the bread is filled with curried meats, legumes, and other vegetables. On an average day, Singh's prepares 200 roti; during local food festivals, that number swells to 1,500.
Singh himself hails from Princes Town, in southwestern Trinidad, where his family owned a restaurant and taught him the tools of the trade. He moved to the U.S. in 1988 at the age of 17; when he later married Kay, also Trinidadian, their business began to take shape. In fact, he said, "we catered our own wedding—with 400 guests."
They opened up shop in 2003 in a small storefront on Columbia Road, in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. "In New York, they have quite a lot of these restaurants, but not in Boston," Singh explained. "We wanted to do something different."
Singh will proudly tell you that most of his ingredients are locally sourced, but there's one key ingredient that's shipped straight from Trinidad, at a cost of $40 per bucket: curry powder, a Madras blend that includes coriander, cumin, turmeric, fenugreek and other spices. It adds up, he insists, to a "unique West Indies flavor—you can't really use a different curry and get the same flavor."
Roti at Singh's start with a hand-cranked corn mill, which grinds yellow split peas down into a crumbly texture. The peas are folded into a flour-based dough kneaded with baking powder, salt and sugar; it's then rolled out into a large disc, squirted with a spiral of vegetable oil and tossed onto a 400°F grill. It only takes a few minutes before the roti puffs out dramatically, resembling the special-occasion balloons you'd buy at a party store. When it starts releasing steam, you know it's almost done.
Once the skin is removed from the grill, it's curry time. The choices are vast; the posted menu is merely a guide and not all items are available on a daily basis. On most days, though, you'll find a selection of curried baby shrimp, tender boneless chicken, jerk chicken, curried goat, and beef ($8.99-$11.99). For vegetarians, there are curried chickpeas, potatoes, red kidney beans, rice, and a vegetable blend of locally grown collard greens, carrots, and cabbage ($7.99).
Although now doused with fillings, the roti skin manages to maintain its two puffy, golden-brown layers. The inner layer, caked with the gritty yellow peas, is suffused with curry sauce, while the outer remains more chewy and taut, perfect for sopping up the filling if you fancy yourself the fork-free type. Either way, yellow, curry-scented stains on your fingers are pretty much unavoidable.
There's another roti skin, with the snappy moniker Buss Up Shut ($4.99), for customers who might not care for the taste or texture of the ground peas. Just be sure to come with an appetite—the skin is three times as big; rolled out, the dough disc is wider than your typical large pizza. When it's almost finished cooking, it's sliced and diced right on the grill, resembling a tattered t-shirt by the time it's served.
For those seeking a change of pace, Singh's serves up Trinidadian fare beyond roti. Judging by the customers I've observed, Doubles ($2) are just as popular. The fried-dough sandwiches are stuffed with chickpeas cooked in cumin, masala, cilantro, and culantro, an herb indigenous to the West Indies. "In Trinidad, the average person will eat five or six [doubles] at a time," Singh said. "They'll have them for breakfast; it's like going to Dunkin' Donuts here."
The airy fried dough, flavored with turmeric, isn't an easy texture to achieve—Kay does a lot of kneading by hand. "Not everyone can make doubles. If everyone could, they'd be sold all over the place," Singh said. Overflowing with curried chickpeas, doubles can be hard to pick up and eat. "It's supposed to be a messy food," he confirmed.
Similar is Pholourie ($2), seasoned dough rolled into balls that's fried for seven minutes in vegetable oil and served as an appetizer with a dipping sauce of tamarind chutney.
This is probably a good time to mention that Singh makes his own tamarind chutney, as well as his own pepper sauce and a range of hot sauces, all processed and bottled in-house.
Some might retire after such a generous meal, but I prefer to end my visits on a sweet note. There's a sorrel beverage, made in-house and mixed with sugar and spices, including an especially toasty note of nutmeg. There are also flaky Currant Rolls ($2), replete with their namesake berries and dusted with cinnamon and brown sugar.
And though Singh used to import Tamarind Balls ($2) from Trinidad, he now makes his own. The dense orbs, sprinkled with white granulated sugar, almost assault you with sweetness on the front end—a little too intense for my tastes, but my husband approves—before delivering a warming hint of that Madras spice mixture at the end.
Singh definitely has some loyal followers: Just before Christmas, he prepared and shipped a huge box of food to Texas to a former customer. The food bill? $285. "And the UPS bill was almost more than the food," he said.
Luckily, Bostonians needn't resort to such long-haul methods. The restaurant launched its own food truck a couple of years ago, which Singh said will be at Castle Island when the weather gets warmer. In the meantime, delivery just started, with a 5-mile radius.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


text:
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. wrote about many scary things: the firebombing of Dresden, the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the specter of individuals controlled by the state or by technology. But the most unnerving image he ever put on paper may have been this, written when he was 47 years old, recounting the words of a fellow Indianapolis high school grad: "When you get to be our age, you all of a sudden realize that you are being ruled by people you went to high school with ... You all of a sudden catch on that life is nothing but high school."
It's a chilling vision. The cutthroat competition, ruthless power plays and rigid status hierarchy all extended into eternity? Even those of us who liked high school wouldn't want to spend a lifetime there.
Or maybe we do. Popular culture is dominated by depictions of high school: Glee and Gossip Girl, High School Musical and Prom. Earlier generations mined the same terrain, from Grease and The Breakfast Club to Beverly Hills, 90210 and My So-Called Life. Our educational system is fixated on the performance of high school students, the key to their all-important college admissions. Social-networking sites mean you never have to lose touch with your friends from high school. And every spring we enter the prom-commencement-reunion cycle, a trifecta of tearjerkers that suggest that high school is still very much with us. The latest trend is "adult proms": formal dances for grownups, complete with sequined dresses and rented tuxedos, which are being held this spring in Fort Wayne, Ind.; Beverly, Mass.; Decatur, Ga.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "Prom the way you always wanted it," read the ad for an adult prom in Green Bay, Wis.
Are those four fraught years the crucible in which our adult identities are forged, or are they a passing phase, faded as an orchid corsage? I found myself confronted by this question when the phone rang at my house this spring. "Hello, Annie," said the startlingly familiar voice on the other end. "This is Mr. Frank." In an instant, the 20 years since I graduated from high school evaporated, and I was back in his 11th-grade history class--back in the world of pop quizzes, of homeroom and gym class, of cafeteria cliques and student-body elections. But Mr. Frank was calling to invite me to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation.
I couldn't have been more flabbergasted if he had called to award me a Nobel Prize. I had been a quiet and studious teenager, a bespectacled wallflower among the chatty debutantes and lacrosse players at my all-girls private school. I bloomed later, in college, where I wrote a column for the school newspaper and co-edited a campus magazine; as an adult, I became a journalist and an author--which, presumably, is why my school asked me to speak. But what would I say? My idiosyncratic path toward career and family would seem to offer little guidance to young people on the matters they find most pressing: What does the future hold for them? How will their teenage experiences affect their adult lives? Will the identities they formed in high school carry over into the real world, or will they be able, if they choose, to leave them behind?
Popularity Contests


text:
Simple Living
"Simple living"—as it applies to the philosophy and practice of Krishna consciousness—can mean many things, such as freedom from greed and extravagance, straightforwardness in social dealings, exclusive service to the Supreme Person, honest work in harmony with natural laws, and dependence on God's mercy.
The English poet William Wordsworth wrote,
Plain living and high thinking are no more:
The homely* beauty of the good old cause
Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,
And pure religion breathing household laws.
Srila Prabhupada may have had this poem in mind when he frequently used the term "simple living and high thinking" to describe the ideal way of life for people in general and devotees of Krishna specifically. "Simple living" is rooted in the idea that an intelligent person should spend as much time as possible cultivating spiritual awareness and not get carried away by material circumstances or desires.
Simple living requires minimizing bodily needs and accepting whatever comes by the arrangement of Providence. To this end, Srila Prabhupada always spoke in favor of local self-sustaining agrarian economies to meet life's needs without the hard labor needed to acquire extraneous amenities.
*In this context, the word "homely" means "unsophisticated and unpretentious," qualities even more rare now than in 1802, when Wordsworth wrote it.
QT Simple Living
- A Proposal for Economic Sanity
- Get rid of lust and greed, and you solve all the world's economic problems.
- The Vedic Solution to World Hunger
- The whole world situation is degrading because people are not producing their own food. This is the problem, the real problem.
- Back to the Simple Life and Simple Truth
- "Anyway, learn to love this natural mode of life, life in a wide-open space. Produce your own grain. Produce your own milk. Save time. Chant Hare Krishna."
- How Green is your Tractor?
- Many of the ideas of the Green movement seem to fit well with Krishna consciousness.
- Save Earth Now
- Unless we learn to live here peacefully, we will not be able to pursue spiritual life.
We like to quote our sources. This page is based on the following references to simple living:
- Srimad-Bhagavatam, 4.22.24, purport:
"A devotee should not live very gorgeously and imitate a materialistic person. Plain living and high thinking are recommended for a devotee. He should accept only so much as he needs to keep the material body fit for the execution of devotional service. He should not eat or sleep more than is required. Simply eating for living, and not living for eating, and sleeping only six to seven hours a day are principles to be followed by devotees."
- Mukunda mala stotra, mantra 18
"The Vedic philosophy teaches that the top priority in life should be reawakening our relationship with the Lord. Therefore a sensible man should never allow himself to get so wrapped up in his material duties that they sap all his energy and kill his desire for serving Krishna. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, who was both a great Vaishnava and a responsible magistrate in the Indian government, said that we should balance our material and spiritual needs, but that we should favor the latter. In other words, we should earn our livelihood in the spirit of simple living and high thinking."
- Teachings of Queen Kunti, 18
"When everyone is working in the city to produce nuts and bolts, who will produce food grains? Simple living and high thinking is the solution to economic problems. Therefore the Krishna consciousness movement in engaging devotees in producing their own food and living self-sufficiently so that rascals may see how one can live very peacefully, eat the food grains one has grown oneself, drink milk, and chant Hare Krishna."
- Bhagavad-gita, 4.13
"According to the three modes of material nature and the work associated with them, the four divisions of human society are created by Me. . ."
- Sri Isopanishad, Mantra One
"Everything animate or inanimate that is within the universe is controlled and owned by the Lord. One should therefore accept only those things necessary for himself, which are set aside as his quota, and one should not accept other things, knowing well to whom they belong."
- Nectar of Instruction – Sri Upadeshamrita, 2:
"One's devotional service is spoiled when he becomes too entangled in the following six activities: (1) eating more than necessary or collecting more funds than required; (2) overendeavoring for mundane things that are very difficult to obtain; (3) talking unnecessarily about mundane subject matters; (4) Practicing the scriptural rules and regulations only for the sake of following them and not for the sake of spiritual advancement, or rejecting the rules and regulations of the scriptures and working independently or whimsically; (5) associating with worldly-minded persons who are not interested in Krishna consciousness; and (6) being greedy for mundane achievements."
- Sri Upadeshamrita, 3:
"There are six principles favorable to the execution of pure devotional service: (1) being enthusiastic, (2) endeavoring with confidence, (3) being patient, (4) acting according to regulative principles [such as sravanam kirtanam vishnoh smaranam [SB 7.5.23]—hearing, chanting and remembering Krishna], (5) abandoning the association of nondevotees, and (6) following in the footsteps of the previous acharyas. These six principles undoubtedly assure the complete success of pure devotional service."
- Video: Hare Krishna Solutions
- a sustainable recycling system and organic farm amid unemployment, desert soil, drought and extreme weather conditions.
- Online Bhagavad-gita Audiobook
- Browse Krishna.com Videos
We're looking for more recorded lectures and videos on this topic. Want to help?


text:
Publications: Books Find us
Filter Publications
Date Published2015 (1)2014 (1)2013 (1)2008 (1)2002 (1)1995 (1)1990 (1)1988 (2)1986 (1)1985 (2)1984 (1)1983 (1)1982 (3)1980 (2)1979 (2)
Authors/EditorsWilliam Lyster (1)Susanna McFadden (1)Robert J. Wenke (1)R. K. Holz (1)Peter Lacovara (1)Patrick Godeau (2)Nancy Thomas (2)Michael Jones (1)Melinda Hartwig (1)Marjorie Susan Venit (1)Kent R. Weeks (1)Karen L. Wilson (1)John S. Holladay Jr (1)Janet Johnson (3)James F. Romano (1)Fred Wendorf (1)Frank W. Eddy (1)Elizabeth S. Bolman (1)Edward Ochsenschlager (1)Donald Whitcomb (3)Donald P. Hansen (1)David Stieglitz (1)David P. Silverman (1)David A. King (2)Andrew Bednarski (1)
Over the last thirty years, ARCE has published more than forty catalogues, conference proceedings, bibliographies, anthologies, excavation reports, and critical editions. The publications attest to the range of scholarship undertaken by scholars and institutions in Egypt under ARCE's auspices, and to the wealth of the nation's artistic, architectural, scientific, literary, and religious culture.
During the past twenty years, ARCE has undertaken an extraordinary mission to preserve the cultural heritage of Egypt. With generous grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), more that sixty conservation projects have been completed, spanning many time periods and geographic regions within Egypt. Documentation and publication of these valuable projects are an ongoing priority.
In 2002 Yale University Press produced the first of these publications. Monastic Visions: Wall Paintings in the Monastery of St. Antony at the Red Sea by Elizabeth Bolman, documents and studies the extraordinary Coptic art revealed during conservation activity at the monastery. A follow-on volume, The Cave Church of Paul the Hermit at the Monastery of St. Paul in Egypt by William Lyster continues the scholarly exploration of the early Christian monastic community and the artwork it produced. This book was released in 2008 by Yale University Press. A much anticipated new volume about the extensive conservation work on the spectacular painted interior of the church at the Red Monastery near Sohag is in the production stage at Yale University Press. The Red Monastery Church: Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt, edited by Elizabeth S. Bolman will be published in 2016.
For those readers interested in a comprehensive overview of the first ten years (1995-2005) of ARCE conservation projects within one volume, ARCE has published Preserving Egypt's Cultural Heritage, edited by Randi Danforth. Preserving Egypt's Cultural Heritage is a visually rich and scholarly retrospective volume recording the wide variety of projects undertaken, including the conservation and documentation of important monuments and works of art throughout Egypt and the training and equipping of Egyptian personnel to sustain preservation efforts into the future. These projects, funded through a grant from USAID, included work on prehistoric sites in the Sinai, an Early Dynastic Royal funerary enclosure, exquisite Greco-Roman mosaics in Alexandria, brilliantly colorful Coptic wall paintings in the world's earliest Christian monasteries, splendid Islamic buildings in Historic Cairo, and the training of a new generation of Egyptian archaeologists. Purchase the book>>
The Red Monastery Church:Beauty and Asceticism in Upper Egypt; Edited by Elizabeth S. Bolman
Distinguished contributors from a wide range of disciplines, including art and architectural history, ancient religion, history, and conservation, discuss the church's importance. Topics include late antique aesthetics, early monastic concepts of beauty and ascetic identity, and connections between the center and the periphery in the early Byzantine world. Beautifully illustrated with more than 300 images, this landmark publication introduces the remarkable history and magnificence of the church and its art to the public for the first time.
Elizabeth S. Bolman is professor of art history at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University.
Available June 28, 2016
Art of Empire: The Roman Frescoes and Imperial Cult Chamber in Luxor Temple is the culmination of a landmark ARCE conservation project to preserve an often overlooked treasure within Luxor Temple. This volume brings together scholars across disciplines for a comprehensive look at the Roman frescoes in Luxor Temple and their architectural, archaeological, and historical contexts. Over 150 stunning illustrations present the paintings for the first time in their newly conserved state, along with a selection of nineteenth century documentary watercolors. This remarkable publication illustrates how physical context, iconography, and style were used to convey ideology throughout Rome's provinces.
Edited by Michael Jones and Susanna McFadden.
Available from Yale University Press (October 2015)
The American University in Cairo (AUC) Press' ARCE Conservation Series presents other dramatic ARCE conservation activities. The series began with The Monuments of Historic Cairo by Nicholas Warner published in 2005. Volume 2, Quseir: An Ottoman and Napoleonic Fortress on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt by Charles Le Quesne, and Volume 3, Villa of the Birds: the Excavation and Preservation of the Kom al-Dikka Mosaics by Wojciech Kolataj, Grzegorz Majcherek, and Ewa Parandowska are available from AUC Press. Volume 4, Babylon of Egypt: The Archaeology of Old Cairo and the Origins of the City, by Peter Sheehan, was released in October 2010.
In 2014, AUC press published The Tomb Chapel of Menna edited by Melinda Hartwig. This lavishly illustrated book is the culmination of a project to document and conserve the tomb of Menna, one of the most beautiful and complex painted tombs of the ancient Egyptian necropolis at Luxor. Through conservation, the tomb, which previously lay open to environmental influence, was brought back to its former glory. Aided by non-invasive methods of scientific analysis, the historical and cultural importance of Menna's paintings can now be viewed and studied and enjoyed by a worldwide audience. Highdefinition photography and drawings complement specialist essays by scholars, scientists, and technicians, who discuss the artistic and cultural significance of the paintings, their architectural context, and scientific importance.
The Lost Manuscript of Frédéric Cailliaud: Arts and Crafts of the Ancient Egyptians, Nubians, and Ethiopians, translated and edited by Andrew Bednarski is the culmination of a project by the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) to translate, edit, and publish the last, great work of the pioneer Egyptologist and explorer Frédéric Cailliaud.
The manuscript upon which this book is based is the result of Cailliaud's travels in the early nineteenth century and studies conducted by him over the last 40 years of his life. The book takes Cailliaud's rare, full-color plates, documenting the world of the ancient and nineteenth-century Nile, and combines them with the unpublished text meant to accompany them. It is much more than a traveler's account of Egypt and Sudan in the early nineteenth century. Cailliaud's lavishly-illustrated study of Nile civilization was produced on the heels of Napoleon's invasion into Egypt, amidst the colonial scramble for influence abroad, at a time when European scientific enquiry was developing new intellectual tools with which to question the origins and place of mankind in the world, and by a man who rose to become a central figure in French scholarship. As a result, Cailliaud's Arts and Crafts presents a unique glimpse into cutting-edge, nineteenth-century scientific and colonial exploration by one of Europe's top minds.
Please use the Filter Publications tool on the upper right of this page to browse and locate book titles and descriptions. In addition to a Title/Keyword search, books can be viewed by Category, Date Published, and Author/Editor. Results will display below. Click Reset to start a new search.
The International Council of Museums, in an effort to fight against illicit traffic in cultural goods, compiles the Emergency Red List of Egyptian Cultural Objects at Risk. This list aims to help art and heritage professionals and law enforcement officials identify Egyptian objects that are protected by national and international legislations. View the Red List for Egypt.


text:
Free Daylight Savings Emoticons & Smileys
Daylight Savings
days/months/seasons, days, months, seasons, daylight savings, occasions
Get free Daylight Savings emoticons for free here at EmoticonsOnly.com. Our site is the best Daylight Savings emoticon site on the internet and the best part is that it is free! Yes, our site is 100% free for you to use and enjoy. We are always adding more images so make sure to always check back for new Daylight Savings emoticons.


text:
The legendary heavy metal band Black Sabbath is set to perform at a sold-out Prague's O2 Arena on Thursday night. The concert is part of an alleged final concert tour. The line-up includes three out the band's four original members: frontman Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi and bass guitarist Terrence 'Geezer' Butler. The final European tour of the legendary band started on June 20. Black Sabbath last performed in the Czech Republic three years ago.
The Czech Republic's Gross Domestic Product rose by 4.5 percent year-on-year in 2015 and by 2.7 in the previous year, according to the revised data released by the Czech Statistical Office on Thursday. The revised figures are slightly higher than the previous estimates, according to which the Czech economy grew by 4.2 percent last year and by 2 percent in 2014.
Czech tennis player Barbora Strýcová has advanced to the second round of the women's singles at Wimbledon. The tournament's 24th seed beat Annet Kontaveit of Estonia 4:6, 6:4 and 6:4. Another Czech, Karolína Plíšková, was knocked out on Thursday after losing to Japan's Misaki Doi 6:7, 3:6 in the second round.
Meteorologists have issued a storm warning for the southern and central part of the Czech Republic. The storms, which could be accompanied by torrential rain, hail and high winds, are expected to hit the region on Thursday afternoon. The warning includes a call for people to secure their windows and garden furniture.
Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek, who is on a two-day official visit to Belarus, has met with the country's president Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko called for improved relations between Belarus and the EU. Mr Zaorálek is also set to meet with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei to discuss the democratization process in Belarus and examine possible ways for cooperation between Belarus and the EU within the framework of the Eastern Partnership. The Czech Foreign Minister is also scheduled to officially open a new building of the Czech embassy in Minsk. A Czech business delegation also accompanied the minister. They are hoping to land key contracts including one to develop the Minsk underground.
A new science and technology park is set to be built in Buštěhrad near the town Kladno. The project, financed by the Trigema developer, is expected to cost some 800 million crowns. The park, which will cover an area of nearly 18,000 square metres, is set to open in 2018. It will offer two buildings with offices, research workplaces and laboratories. A research centre of the Czech Technical University has been recently opened in Buštěhrad.
Some 400 film fans have been queuing up for tickets to the 51th Karlovy Vary International Film festival, which is due to kick off on Friday. The festival will open with a screening of, the British-US-French coproduction film Anthropoid which tells the story of the 1942 assassination of acting Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich in Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The screening will be attended by the director Sean Ellis and lead actors, including Jamie Dornan. Among other guests of the 50th Karlovy Vary International Film festival will be American actor Willem Dafoe, who will receive a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to world cinematography, and screen-writer Charlie Kaufman. The festival will run until July 9.
In football, the Czech national manager Pavel Vrba has stepped down from his post, after signing a deal with the Russian club Makhachkala. The 52-year-old former Plzeň coach took up the post of the Czech national trainer on January 1, 2014. His squad qualified for the finals of the Euro 2016 Championship, but finished early with just one point from a draw with Croatia in the group stage. Makhachkala was 12th in the Russia league last season. It is not yet clear who will replace Vrba in the post. Mladá Boleslav coach Karel Jarolím or the current head of the Bohemian and Moravian Football Federation and former player Ivan Hašek have been mentioned as possible successors.
The head of the special police unit for combatting organised crime, Robert Šlachta, will end his 26 year police career on Thursday. Šlachta tendered his resignation June 10 in protest at a proposed re-organisation of the police force. Those proposals sparked a rift within the government coalition between the biggest party, the Social Democrats led by prime minister Bohuslav Sobotka, and ANO party, headed by Andrej Babiš. Šlachta led the special police squad since 2008 and was widely viewed as being successful in the post. State prosecutors are investigating whether the police shake-up was basically a move to eject Šlachta from his post.
In ice hockey, San Jose Sharks Czech attacker Tomáš Hertl has signed a new two-year contract to continue at the club. The contract is reported to be worth 6 million US dollars. The 22-year-old's current three year deal is coming to an end. Last season Hertl scored 21 goals and provided 25 assists in a campaign which led the Sharks to the Stanley Cup finals. Hertl is currently recovering from injury which resulted in him missing out on the last Stanley Cup clashes with Pittsburgh.


text:
What We're Doing To Keep Our Community & Team Members Safe Learn More
You don't have any saved vehicles!
Look for this link on your favorites:
Once you've saved some vehicles, you can view them here at any time.
Are you looking to buy a Toyota vehicle? Toyota of Hollywood in Hollywood, FL is here to help you through every step of the car buying and owning process. Not only will you find the Toyota that fits you and your lifestyle perfectly, but we'll keep you safe on the road thanks to our expert car service and repair department. Our financing specialists also help you take care of the future by setting up the payment plan that works best for you.
New vehicle pricing includes all offers and incentives. Tax, Title, Tags and dealer doc fee of $899 not included in vehicle prices shown and must be paid by the purchaser. While great effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, errors do occur so please verify information with a customer service rep. This is easily done by calling us at (855) 398-2449 or by visiting us at the dealership.
**With approved credit. Terms may vary. Monthly payments are only estimates derived from the vehicle price with a 72 month term, 3.9% interest and 25% downpayment.
*#1 based on total retails sales of New Toyotas in the Southeast Region for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 per Southeast Toyota Distributors.
*Number of views in last 30 days
† Based on 2020 EPA mileage ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.
You don't have any saved vehicles!
Look for this link on your favorites:
Once you've saved some vehicles, you can view them here at any time.
(855) 398-2449Call Now
1841 North State Road 7 • Hollywood, FL 33021Get Directions
Open Today! Sales: 8:30am-10pm
Open Today! Service: 7am-6pm
Open Today! Parts: 7:30am-5pm
Phone: (855) 398-2449https://firstname.lastname@example.com,-80.2109637,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x88d9a96d7453708b:0xcc65eb7f49c3d5bc!8m2!3d26.0226485!4d-80.208775


text: Curiosity is around every corner! Explore the first multi-venue museum dedicated to the art of the 21st century in the nation. Grab a drink from Metropole and allow the experts illuminate the secrets behind the works. Docent tours are available every Wednesday and Friday at 5pm. Free and open to the public. Meet us in the lobby!


text:
SAN ANTONIO -- Georgia Army National Guard Spc. Constance Mack, representing the Presidio of Monterey, Calif., won the 2012 Operation Rising Star military singing contest at Fort Sam Houston Theatre here, Dec. 15.
"For me to win this is very humbling, because I was not expecting it whatsoever," said Mack, 26, who hails from St. Petersburg, Fla., but considers Stone Mountain, Ga., home. "Now I can wake up in the morning and start singing any song any way I want. The fact that I can wake up and start singing lets me know that singing is a part of me."
Staff Sgt. Darren McGraw, representing the U.S. Army Garrison in Grafenwoehr, Germany, finished runner-up in the week-long competition that began with 12 semifinalists selected from 34 installations around the world. McGraw, who participated in Operation Rising Star twice at Fort Campbell, Ky., and twice in Germany, will report to Fort Bragg, N.C., in January.
"I think they got it right," McGraw said of the judges' decisions combined with more than 121,000 votes from viewers who could watch the shows on the Pentagon Channel and at www.OpRisingStar.com. "We were the top 12 in this competition for a reason. I'm not saying that I'm better than anybody here or that this person had more support or anything. I think the way it was supposed to happen, it happened.
"This is a steppingstone. Last week, you could have been singing in a karaoke bar, and now we're all over the Internet. I couldn't ask for more exposure," McGraw said. "This is what I wanted to do. I wanted to share my gift with the world and be known for it. Operation Rising Star has allowed me to do that, so I'm overjoyed."
Mack relied on her training and music degree from DeKalb School of the Arts in Atlanta and Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn., to dazzle Operation Rising Star judges and fans with her vocal versatility.
Her song selections included "Still I Rise" by Yolanda Adams, "Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin, "Love on Top" by Beyonce, Stevie Wonder's "All I Do" and Shirley Bassey's "I Who Have Nothing." She capped her performance with Jackson Browne's "The Pretender," shouted out by request from a Soldier in the audience.
Along the way, Mack stunned everyone with a stirring rendition of "Nessun Dorma," Giacomo Pucini's Italian aria made famous by Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Boccelli.
"There is a strong sense of comfort in that type of music for me to perform," said Mack, noting that she received mostly operatic and classical vocal training from Dr. Angela Holder at Carson-Newman.
"I waited until after the voting was in so that I could do that part. I still had to remain true to what my heart wanted," she said. "I can give the audience a pop song -- I don't even really listen to pop -- or whatever song they want. I can give them that, but I kind of wanted to be a little selfish on that one song and just do what I wanted to do. That was just me."
The strategy worked. On a stage where no one expected to hear such a sound, Mack nearly brought the house down with "Nessun Dorma."
"Pavarotti's 1984 version stole the cake, and ever since, people have been trying to sing it like him," Mack said. "It's been featured on a few of these type shows, like "America's Got Talent," and I think it was on "Britain's Got Talent."
"Nessun dorma" translated to English means "None Shall Sleep," which defined the feeling of contestants in the five-shows-in-eight-days event sponsored by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command and its G9 of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs, which include Army Entertainment.
"Honestly, I stayed up one night and just listened to every song on there," Mack said. "Actually, I had to do it over the span of three nights. It's really hard to choose a perfect seven. It was a marathon, is what it was, but I'm glad I pulled it through."
Mack was surprised to reach the final round of elimination because she came to San Antonio totally unprepared to rally a group of online voters in California or back home in Georgia.
"I didn't expect to win, at all," she said. "I was just here to sing, not necessarily to compete. I was here because I sang and I got chosen to be top 12 by chance. I got here with all these wonderful artists and the first day that we did our performance, everyone was on the same playing field and it was all fun, and we were having a great time.
"The next day, voting lines opened and everybody just went crazy with the voting -- calling up their people and contacting their marketing crews: 'Hey, back home, I need you to start voting right now.' And I didn't have any of that. I didn't prepare myself for that, I guess. I didn't know how this monster was even working to begin with," she said.
"I was sitting on a sofa just watching them on their iPods, iPhones and iPads, contacting everybody they knew. And I was just like, 'Well, number one, my phone is not that smart. I'm not getting good reception, so I can't really contact anybody. So maybe these guys are going to win it after all, and it will be awesome if they do.'
"I wasn't expecting to win it all; wasn't expecting anything to even progress because I hadn't been putting myself out there. That's one thing I don't completely understand how to do," she added.
After the first round of elimination, Mack had a sudden realization.
"After the first night of those who had to say goodbye to the contest, I was like, 'Hmm, this is kind of real now. Here I am, and these artists are still side-by-side, and I'm still in their midst, which means I have no time to sleep.' I think it clicked to me when [vocal coach and judge] Debra Byrd said: 'You have a mission. You have a mission.' The mission to me was just to sing my song, not necessarily to win. I did that. And I hoped I made people proud. The whole time I was just thinking of my company back on Presidio."
Mack is part of Company A, 229th Military Intelligence Battalion at the Presidio of Monterey, where she is a two-time local Operation Rising Star winner studying Chinese at the Defense Language Institute.
Mack has a complete understanding of where she wants to go from San Antonio.
"I've drawn up this really succinct plan of life for the next five years," she said. "After DLI and I'm [military occupational specialty]-qualified, I want to begin grad school so that I can become a principal, and at the same time be ROTC at the college of my choice so that I can become an officer.
"I want everything at the same time, but I really have to look at what is most important to me. I love the hearts of little children, and I love their hearts and their minds -- I want to see them grow and for me to be a principal," she said.
Mack said even though she has the gift of music, for some reason her desire to become a school principal is stronger, though she admits she doesn't understand it all.
"If there was a way I could be a Chinese-speaking officer-principal-singer, fine, I would do it all," she said. "But until I figure it out, which I will, I've got to take it one step at a time."
That's exactly how she topped a field of 12 semifinalists in the 2012 Operation Rising Star Live Finals Week at the home of Army Entertainment.
"This woke me up to say that things are still possible," Mack said. "Say I was growing up and I wanted a music career in life and I joined the military. If I joined the military wishing to become this star, then I could pretty much hang up my dreams to become a singer or being able to perform because I'm supposed to be doing pushups, I'm supposed to be in the field, I'm supposed to be eating [a meal, ready-to-eat], not this.
"But being here definitely woke me up to what the Army has to offer. I didn't even realize that they had this option. It's really a blessing to know that I can mix both together and do both together -- still serve the country, still serve God, still serve the public and whoever else wants to put in the tape and listen to it. It's nice to be able to do it all at once. I'm figuring it out. I'm on my way."


text:
By Jethro Mullen
(CNN) — An eight-story building collapsed Wednesday on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital, killing more than 70 people and injuring hundreds, the national news agency reported.
Images broadcast by local media showed dust rising from the wreckage as rescue workers scrambled over the tangled mass of concrete and rushed injured people from the scene.
Authorities fear many more people are still trapped inside the ruins of the commercial building, which housed several garment factories and a shopping mall, the agency Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) reported.
Health Minister A.F.M. Ruhal Huq said the death toll exceeded 70, the agency reported, and an army officer overseeing the rescue effort said that at least 700 people had been injured.
The collapse is the latest disaster to befall the garment industry in Bangladesh. A fire at a clothing factory in a suburb of Dhaka in November killed at least 112 people.
More than 70 people died the last major building collapse in Bangladesh in 2005, according to BSS. That disaster involved a multistory garment factory in the same area as the building that gave way Wednesday.
Garments make up 80% of Bangladesh's $24 billion of annual exports.
The country has about 4,500 garment factories, where workers make clothes for brands including Tesco, Walmart, JC Penney, Kohl's and Carrefour.
—Journalist Farid Ahmed contributed to this report


text:
Lineups per Hf Boards
D. Sedin - H. Sedin - Burrows
Higgins - Kesler - Hansen
Raymond - Hodgson - Malhotra
Sweatt - Lapierre - Weise
Hamhuis - Bieksa
Edler - Salo
Ballard - Rome
Michalek - Spezza - Daugavins
Foligno - Regin - Alfredsson
Condra - Smith - Neil
Greening - Winchester - Butler
Cowen Karlsson
Phillips Lee
Rundlbad Carkner
Vancouver key injuries - Booth, Volpatti
Ottawa key injuries - Don't see any
Canucks practise at the Civic Centre today in OTT in honour of inaugural Senators coach Rick Bowness.
#canucks showing Rick Bowness's 1st win as head coach of #Senators on big screen at Civic Centre. Draws big laughs from coaches and players.
No Leaves or Habs for the early game tonight so buy extra food while you're out, apocalypse is coming.


text:
Chrome Frame is an add in that integrates with IE and Firefox. Firefox has a similar component, and I hear that the .NET runtime finds its way into all the other browsers.
Additional integration points include:
- Protocol Handlers (firefoxurl, cf)
- Plugins like Chrome Frame
This integration greatly widens my surface area of attack. I would like to still run multiple browers, but keep them completely isolated from each other.
How can I "unmerge" (for lack of a better word) all the browsers that I've installed? I'm not limited to just Chrome here (though I'm using this as an example).
What other integration points can browsers use? Namely Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE, Opera?


text:
Message Board
Shannon McKenna Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that McKenna has written!
Author McKenna's Book Reviews
Behind Closed Doors
Raine Cameron is working at her uncle's business thinking he won't recognize her since he hasn't seen her in years and she is going by a different name. She is there to find out the truth about who killed her father. In the meantime Seth Mackey, a sexy securities specialist is out to catch the mastermind behind his brother's horrible murder. Seth and Raine meet in an explosive meeting, not realizing that they are both out to snag the same men but bot...
Return to Me
Kensington, Jun 2004, 14.00 ISBN: 0758205600 Seventeen years ago Simon Riley fled LaRue, Oregon because of his crazy uncle and a stable fire he caused to become a famous photojournalist. He finally comes home to learn what happened to Uncle Gus, who five months ago apparently committed suicide. However, the email Gus sent that same day to Simon sounded paranoid not suicidal as his uncle mentioned he has proof that will shock everyone. Simon wa...
Standing in the Shadows
Connor's partner was murdered, and Connor spent several months in a coma, left with scars, burns and a shattered leg. His colleague, Ed Riggs, was corrupted and blackmailed and is now in prison. Conner was the cop that put him away. He also saved Riggs daughter Erin who he loves. Novak is supposed to be rotting in a maximum security prison, but Connor has just heard of his escape. Novak almost got his vicious claws into Erin once, and if the Feds won't p...


text:
Resources A-Z
CRL gathers and provides information here about commercial and open access digital resources of interest to the CRL community. This information is intended to inform library decisions on investment in electronic resources and related services.
Independent Radio News Archive
"The London Broadcasting Company/Independent Radio News audio archive consists of 7,000 reel-to-reel tapes in a collection that runs from 1973 to the mid-1990s. It is the most important commercial radio archive in the UK and provides a unique audio history of the period. This digitised collection focuses on the most noteworthy content – approximately 3,000 hours of recordings relating to news and current affairs." -- Jisc eCollections for Higher Education Institutions 2014-2017.
While CRL makes every effort to verify statements made herein, the opinions expressed and evaluative information provided here represent the considered viewpoints of individual librarians and specialists at CRL and in the CRL community. They do not necessarily reflect the views of CRL management, its board, and/or its officers.


text:
Not to sound like a dick but you guys should make a post regarding your conversations. Let's keep this for just part listings. Now I have to go thru a bunch of crap to find if a new part is available.
- SolaraGuy Driver
- Posts: 507
- Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2005 3:23 pm
- Location: Jersey


text:
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Dustin Allison was riding in an armored vehicle at the head of a convoy in Iraq one morning in 2007 when an improvised explosive device went off, killing the driver and leaving Allison badly wounded.
Shrapnel struck the Utah National Guard platoon leader behind his left ear, fracturing his skull and taking off a small piece of his ear. The radio behind his head was destroyed.
"I was definitely lucky," said Allison, a former Utah State Trooper from the Salt Lake City suburbs who had volunteered for duty in Iraq.
But unlike many wounded in war, Allison bore few outward signs of having been badly hurt. He has a scar, but once he returned to Utah he also found out he was incapable of running without getting sick. He also says he experienced vertigo as a result, but that can be difficult to prove to government bureaucrats looking to safeguard against fraud.
"If you lose your leg it's pretty clear what happened, whereas if you get hit in the head and you get migraines and dizzy and vertigo and all kinds of more subjective things that happen, that makes it harder" to diagnose, said Allison, who now lives in Baltimore.
He joined thousands of others struggling to navigate the Veterans Administration's benefits claims process. But his choice to attend business and law school at the College of William & Mary in 2008 allowed him to become one of the school's first clients for a veterans benefits legal clinic its law school was starting.
The clinic uses law students and a faculty member to tackle complex cases on a pro bono basis in which veterans can have difficulty providing the evidence they need to substantiate their claims. Veterans receive disability compensation for injuries and illness incurred or aggravated during their active military service. The amount of the compensation is based on a rating assigned by the VA.
The cases the clinic takes on often involve post-traumatic stress disorder either from warfare or a sexual assault that there may be no record of. In one case, a World War II veteran who injured his knee in basic training in 1943 didn't report a claim until 1971; the claim was repeatedly denied until the clinic stepped in.
The clinic is being touted by members of Congress as a national model for inexpensively dealing with the Veterans Administration's backlog. Between 2009 and August 2012, the clinic has helped 46 clients with submission of 343 claimed injuries or illnesses.
"At 50 clients you're directly representing at a time, that's certainly not going to impact the backlog in a way that It needs to be. But if you get more law schools across the country to do this work then you're exponentially leveraging the passion and the experience of law students across the country to help with that backlog," said Patty Roberts, director of clinical programs at William & Mary's law school.
The VA has come under heavy criticism for the number of disability claims pending longer than 125 days — about 570,000. That's nearly two-thirds of all claims pending.
"We want to respect our veterans, but when you've got people waiting, often times in excess of a year to get their claims processed, that's not a good sign," said U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. "This is a national embarrassment."
Warner has urged Senate colleagues to work with law schools in their states to create similar legal clinics. He also urged VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to help move that process along.
The Williamsburg college has been contacted by White House officials to see what could help replicate the program elsewhere. In response, the school developed a playbook for starting similar legal clinics. So far, Warner's office has forwarded that playbook to about 10 law schools, including those at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Colorado and Oregon State.
On Thursday, the effort gained momentum when U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., introduced a bill that authorizes the VA to provide support to law school programs that provide legal assistance to veterans. The Veterans Legal Support Act of 2013 would allow the VA to spend up to $1 million a year assisting those programs.
Shaheen's office says that since 2008, 30 law schools in 18 states have developed clinical programs that specifically assist veterans in some manner.
Financial assistance is one of the things that could help schools currently helping veterans take on more clients or get other schools' programs off the ground, said Stacey-Rae Simcox, an Army veteran who serves as the managing attorney at William & Mary's Puller Veterans Benefits Clinic.
School officials said it's difficult to pinpoint the exact cost of the clinic because it uses existing space and faculty, but Simcox said William & Mary's program runs on a 'shoestring' budget. Still, she spends part of her time fundraising to help make ends meet and pay for things like psychological assessments and travel to homeless shelters where many veterans reside.
"These clinics don't require that much of an investment, but they do require some," Simcox said.
Simcox said she got the idea to help veterans because she and her husband, who was also an Army lawyer, had such a difficult time navigating the benefits' claim process after he left the military.
"It was complicated and there was a lot of paperwork and the rules were complex. And we realized that if two JAG attorneys were having issues understanding how the system works and figuring out all the paperwork and stuff, that the average soldier or Marine is never going to be able to do it by themselves," she said.
That's something Allison said he has personal experience with.
"It's truly impossible to do it well by yourself," said Allison, whose claims took about two years to resolve. "If you don't provide the evidence, they're going to deny you. If you don't know what you need to provide or what that standard of proof is on your own, you need support somehow."
After his claims were resolved in a little less than two years, Allison spent his final year in law school last year helping out other veterans by working at the clinic.
"I had been in a wounded warrior unit. I know what people have to go through. I was very fortunate. It was an easy choice to feel like I needed to pay it back," he said.
See also: